Trouble connecting to SQL Server with PHP

I'm trying to connect to my local SQL Server 2008 R2 (have also tried it with 2005, same result exactly) with PHP. I'm using PHP 5.1 which still supports php_mssql and mssql_connect().

for some reason PHP just won't find my server, I can connect via ODBC flawlessly an that's 开发者_StackOverflowfine, but I would like to connect to SQL Server directly.

I have connected PHP to SQL Server a million times on different servers, this one seems to be the only one giving me issue.

This is my little test code to try and get the connection working.

//define connection garbage
$db['hostname'] = "USER90C6\SQLEXPRESS";
$db['username'] = "user";
$db['password'] = "password";
$db['database'] = "kal_auth";

//connection string
$conn = mssql_connect($db['hostname'], $db['username'], $db['password']);


//does it work? :o
if($conn)
{
    echo "works";
}
else 
{
    echo "fails";
}

The error this code produces:

Warning: mssql_connect() [function.mssql-connect]: Unable to connect to server:     USER90C6\SQLEXPRESS in C:\xampp\htdocs\test.php on line 9
fails

Is there something seriously wrong with my setup? or am I missing something.

• Did you enable TCP/IP on the server's configuration tool?
• Is the firewall blocking any ports you might be using?
• Are your MDAC (microsoft data access components) updated?
• turn on mssql.secure_connection in php.ini

I think you don't miss anything.. Your connection string seems to be right (you receive a "Unable to connect" error..). In my opinion, you problem can be a version incompatibility or a user privileges mistake. First of all: look at DLL driver you are using in PHP and check it's compatibility with you MSSQL version. Maybe can be a good idea a fresh PHP install, with the latest stable release, if it is possible. Give a look at: http://www.php.net/manual/en/mssql.requirements.php

Good luck.